Improvement in car-doors



door with my spark-excludcr attached.

GREGORY KITELEY, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARI-DOORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 184,971, dated December5, 1876; application filed November 7, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, GREGORY B. KITELEY, of Louisville, in the county ofJefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful SparkExcluder for the Doors of Freight-Oars, of which the following is aspecification:

The purpose of this invention is to prevent the entrance of sparks intothe doors of freight-oars, especially for the protection of such as areemployed in the transportation of cotton, hay, and other inflammablesubstances.

In the annexed drawing, making a part of this specification, Figure 1 isa -perspective "low of a section of a freight-car, showing the Fig. 2 isa horizontal section of the door, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of adoor detached.

The same letters are employed in all the figures in the indication ofthe same parts.

A is the ordinary sliding door of a freightcar, sliding in grooved Ways,the edges of which protect sufficiently against the admission of sparksat the top and bottom of the door, as also a recess, which receives thefront end of the sliding door, serves to exclude them when the door isclosed and fastened. The point of danger is the rear end of the door.This I protect by an automatic flap, U, which is attached to the rearend of the door by hinges O, which have their pintles in the middle ofthe flap. A beveled recess is formed in the frame of the door. at therear end, with a bar, B, which lies vertically along the rear edge ofthe doorway. Points D are attached tot-he edge of the flap next the car.These points, as the door is closed, run under the bar B, and swing theflap until it stands at right angles to the plane of the door restingagainst the rear edge of the door, and also against the face of the barB, thus closing the crack at the rear edge of the door, and preventingthe entrance of sparks.

When the door is opened the points, strikin g against the beveled faceof the recess adjacent to the bar, will cause the flap to swing until itstands parallel to the plane of the door and side of the car, so that,being made of sheet metal, and thin, it will not interferev with theclosing of the door or the opening thereof.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-- The automatic flap C, hinged to the door A, and acting incombination with the bar B, for the exclusion of sparks, substantiallyas set forth.

In. testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

GREGORY B. KITELEY. Witnesses:

J. F. WELLER, JoHN DUFFY.

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